Tag Archive: Normandie-Niémen

Gaël Taburet, the last surviving Normandie-Niémen pilot, passed away on February 10 in Southern France, aged 97. Born in 1919, Taburet enlisted in the French air force in 1938 and received his pilot’s wings in 1939. In January 1944, he volunteered to join the Normandie fighter regiment (later renamed Normandie-Niémen by Stalin in recognition of …

The commandant Jean Sauvage, who fought with the famous Normandie-Niémen fighter group on the Eastern Front, recently passed away aged 97. Flying Morane-Saulnier MS. 406 fighters with GC III/3 during the Battle of France, he was credited with three shared aerial victories. He was sent to North Africa after the armistice and joined the Allied …

Georges Marcelin, who served as a mechanic with the famous “Normandie-Niémen” Free French fighter group during World War Two, died yesterday at the age of 92. In october 1943, the French mechanics of the group were replaced by Soviet mechanics and Georges Marcelin was assigned to the “Ardennes” fighter group, flying the P-40 Warhawk and …

Pierre Lorillon, a fighter ace from the French Normandie-Niémen group that fought on the Russian front in World War Two, died on February 17th in Bastia (Corsica). With his death, there are now only two surviving pilots of the legendary French fighter unit: Gaël Taburet and Jean Sauvage. Pierre Lorillon was born on May 13, …

Roland de la Poype, a French ace of the Normandie-Niémen group, died aged 92 at Saint-Tropez in Southern France on 23 October. Roland Paulze d’Ivoy de la Poype, Compagnon de la Libération and Hero of the Soviet Union, was one of the first Frenchmen to rejoin General de Gaulle in June 1940. He volunteered to …